1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer systems, and more particularly to providing a messaging interface between one or more computer system environments.
2. Related Art
Telecommunications network products are services provided by telephone companies that are carried on telecommunications networks. A widely known example is dial-1 long distance voice service which allows a customer to dial a 1 plus a ten digit number from his or her home telephone, talk to a party who answers the telephone on the line of the ten digit number dialed, and pay for the telephone call when billed at the end of the month. Although dial-1 is popular, other calling and payment options are sometimes preferable. For example, a calling card call allows an individual to make a call from a phone other than their home phone and charge the call to the home phone account using the calling card.
One such calling and payment option is debit calling which is also referred to as prepaid calling. Debit calling allows a customer to put funds in an account and have those funds debited each time a telephone call is made. Standard debit call processing includes verification of the account balance prior to connecting the call and ongoing balance verification during the call. An example of a typical debit calling customer is a parent who purchases a debit calling card for a child away from home.
Once a debit account is established, a customer may add funds to the debit account. Customers often add funds to their debit accounts using credit cards. To add funds, a customer contacts the telephone company by dialing a telephone number that is answered by a customer service representative or an operator and requests that funds be added to the debit account. The customer service representative or operator collects information from the customer and processes the request to add funds. In order to add funds, the customer must select a method of payment and the customer service representative or operator must obtain authorization and enter the information needed to later bill the customer.
If the customer chooses to pay for funds added to a debit account using a credit card, authorization for charges must be obtained from the financial institution that provides the credit card account to the customer. Authorization to charge to a customer's credit card account is typically obtained by accessing a computer system owned by the financial institution. The computer system typically includes a database with customer account information and one or more computer programs that can determine using the customer's account information whether to authorize billing a particular transaction to the customer's credit card account. When the financial institution authorizes a transaction, the telephone company receives an authorization response code which reflects a commitment from the financial institution that it will pay the telephone company for the services provided.
Because the computer systems used by financial institutions communicate using a different protocol than the computer systems operating on telecommunications networks, protocol conversion is needed for the computer systems operating on telecommunications networks to automatically access the computer systems used by financial institutions that authorize billing transactions. A protocol is a standard that computer programs follow to be compatible with other computer programs. Protocols determine what information is transmitted, what timing values should be associated with the transfer of information, and what format should be used to transmit the information. A standard or protocol may be used throughout the telecommunications industry or it may be owned by a private entity for use with computer systems sold or operated by that entity. Telecommunications network components are available that allow communication between the computer systems operating on the telecommunications network and the computer systems used for financial institutions for real-time authorization of charges processed by a human operator. However, these components do not allow for real-time authorization of charges processed automatically and they do not provide real-time updates to telephone company computer systems that process billing for other telecommunications products.
Computer systems used by telephone companies process billing differently than the computer systems used by financial institutions. Typically, billing for a telecommunications product cannot occur until after a call is complete because billing is dependent on the duration of the call. For example, when a customer uses a calling card with added features, such as the ability to access news and weather, the processing of the billing for the call involves a two step process. First, the computer systems of the telecommunications network that process calling cards provide a record of the use of the calling card to computer systems that process billing for the telephone company. Second, a switch, which is a component within the telecommunications network, provides the call duration information to the telephone company billing computer systems. Then, the telephone company billing computer systems reconcile these records.
However, unlike billing for a call using a calling card with added features, billing for a request to add funds to a debit account is not dependant on call duration. The customer requests to add a specified amount to a debit account. The duration of the call affects the amount of funds deducted from the account at the end of the call but not the amount added to the customer's account. Therefore, the addition of the specified amount to the debit account can be performed as a single transaction. Unfortunately, current telephone company billing computer systems are not programmed to process billing a single transaction. As a result, reconciliation of the records of the telephone company billing computer systems and the records of the financial institution's billing computer systems is currently not real-time. The process of reconciling the records of the telephone company billing computer systems and the financial institution's billing computer systems is referred to as settlement.